


How We Came to Learn Each Other (And Love Ourselves Along the Way)

by Mrsomnom



Category: Leverage
Genre: CHAOS REDEMPTION YES?, Colin's a good person, Frustration, M/M, OCD Character, OCD Colin, This is so Chaos-centric but Quinn's my bae, person vs. identity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-05-30 21:08:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6440866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mrsomnom/pseuds/Mrsomnom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Chaos and Quinn grow closer than they ever (wanted to) expected to, exposing and coming to terms with parts of themselves in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The preface to my Chaos redemption arc question mark?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Because I struggle in writing narrative, my works from here one are gonna be collections of my thoughts and summaries of my AU's and shit. Length and writing style will be inconsistent, because I'd rather just be putting things out there rather than making them perfect, so some may sound like a tumblr post, and others create more of a narrative.

        Companies go bankrupt, millionaires lose everything they have. The pentagon’s been hacked five times, three different presidents’ emails have been exposed, world leaders everywhere get eighty cosmetics magazines delivered to their door; this is Chaos, everyone knows. And they see this, they see the digital mayhem as dozens government run websites crash and private data gets released to the web.

        But at the same time of these attacks, there’s smaller incursions happening and go unchecked. While a corporate CEO is trying to save his company’s reputation after its most recent onslaught, he doesn’t notice a thousand dollars or so go missing from his account, straight to one of Colin Mason’s protected ones- and no one makes a fuss when a few organizations get a couple hundred dollars donated to them anonymously. And besides, all the news coverage is focusing on this one congressman’s many affairs being exposed from his emails anyway, which were released last night onto multiple forums.

        Chaos has a reputation, and these instances are never traced back to him. Whatever Colin does while everyone is distracted remains his little secret.


	2. First Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Chaos dragged Quinn into his shit, more Colin development from Quinn's point of view, then these assholes warm up to each other.

             Quinn’s current job had definitely _not_ been going as well as it could have. In fact; he would call it an _utter disaster._ The recent months had been quite chaotic, no pun intended, and he wished it all made sense, but Quinn was having a hard time pulling it together in his head how exactly he managed to end up here, behind some crates near an obscure train stop, likely bleeding out, with he who Quinn once thought to be the most obnoxious man he’d ever met crouched beside him muttering how much of a dick move it would be if he died. Quinn pushes that aside to remind Chaos that it’s his life goal to attend his funeral.

            But that was a while after they’d been working together, and just before he’d gotten the call from Parker for a job that involved the Irish mob. It started a few months after helping Eliot and his crew take down Latimer and Dubenich, while jobs were coming in slow, and Quinn could finally relax a while, maybe take a vacation to one of the few countries where he wasn’t wanted. Except that didn’t happen, because next thing he knew the obnoxious hacker from the damn dam job was dragging him off to Serbia, and it all happened so quickly that Quinn didn’t really have time to process how Chaos had found him and managed to get him halfway across the earth until they were in some shitty hotel room with computers and devices and adapter cables everywhere. He came to realize that the hacker had that effect on people.

            But somehow that one job turned to two, and then a dozen, and Quinn would later notice that he’d be hearing that kind of thing a lot after joining the Leverage team full time. But for the time being, all he really had was a partner, and hell, that was a lot more than he’d ever had in years. And it wasn’t the worst setup- honestly, Chaos was a lot more tolerable once you got to know him. He wore his persona like it’s an alias, and his life is a grift. He acted arrogant and aggressive, because his mentality was that this world was unfair. Having friends didn’t help you, and being nice got you nowhere, so he was selfish and arrogant in order to make a name for himself. But being around each other a lot meant that Quinn got to see Chaos leave, and he got to know Colin better.

            (On an unrelated note: turns out Colin’s a pretty good grifter)

            Quinn noticed a lot of things about his new partner over time. He’d never had someone around so often and he became hyper-aware off all of Colin’s habits. He was still cocky and overconfident, but the smugness was less pervasive in the privacy of a shared hotel room. He loved fantasy and preferred to it sci-fi, and was actually an avid reader. He’s thorough in his work in the digital world, and the discord he sent upon his enemies is calculated and planned out, meticulously so. He regularly rearranged the files on his computer, and his books too. He often would shift all the things on his desk around, only for them to end up where they started, and repeat that an hour or so later. He still didn’t shut his mouth, though, and he really liked talking.

            It was during their fifth job together that they noticed their relationship shifting. Colin was pretty damn sure Quinn had a flight out of Belgrade to catch, and yet there he was, hours after all flights had stopped departing, lounging on the bed closest to the window (which he always chose, and slept with his back to it, not that Colin was paying attention). He was wondering why the hell Quinn was still here, but then his mind got off track about how he didn’t mind the hitter’s lingering presence and the way his sharp eyes had gone soft in their hotel room after a job, and how he enjoyed dragging Quinn back to work with him- and then Colin got stuck on that thought. Why did he keep inviting Quinn back to work with him? The first time they did a job together there were threats and arguments and a lot of metaphorical kicking and screaming on Quinn’s part; the next time was only a little better. But these last couple jobs? They started out with an invitation to the hitter- not that he would turn them down- and they were working harmonically, getting comfortable with the idea of having someone at your back. And maybe, Colin thought, that’s why neither of them left that job right way. They both knew there’d be another, but there was no rush for either of them to leave the other at the airport. Maybe Colin was getting used to having a partner.


End file.
